1. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to a grating plate for container/grater for friable food products, such as hard cheese to be grated.
2. Background Art
A known container/grater performs both the function of housing for the food product, insulating it from the external environment during its transport and storage in the sales point and by the customer, and the function of a grater upon consuming the cheese, as disclosed for example in documents GB-A-1282940, WO-A-99/017649, GB-A-2396320 e EP-A-1554962, this latter one assigned to the same Applicant of the present Application.
The above known models of container/grater of this type comprise:                a base on which a reverse cup-shaped element is rotatingly assembled in such a way as to define a chamber for containing the food product, the base comprising a grating plate that makes the chamber bottom and has a plurality of through holes with the edges of which respective teeth are associated that project in the chamber,        a threaded rod that extends upwards from the grating plate in the chamber, and        a pressure plate having a central threaded hole that is engaged by the threaded rod and having an external perimeter adapted to engage the internal wall of the reverse cup-shaped element so that the rotation of the reverse cup-shaped element with respect to the base implies the translation of the pressure plate along the rod and the compression of the food product against the plate, so that the food product is crumbled and dispensed from the containing chamber.        
A common problem to all these containers is that, in case of drop or violent impact, the threaded rod and the base are subjected to a reflected force from the internal food product, that, being hard or heavy, distorts them and often breaks them, sharply detaching the rod at its root, and also breaks the external transparent container, making de facto the container unusable as a whole.
The above problem has been solved by the Applicant of the present invention with a reinforced container/grater for friable food products as disclosed in document WO-A-2007/144908. Such document, however, solves the problem of the distortion of the cutting floor of the grating plate during the phase of use while grating is performed with the use of ribs.